Rutgers Football 2010: UNC or BUST!

Great news this week that Rutgers has solidified it's coaching staff once again and brought some familiar faces back to the team, 1 who was a coach during the 2006 season. Coaches Phil Galiano and Randy Melvin rejoined the Rutgers coaching staff after brief pauses coaching other teams. It's good news because Rutgers can really use some coaches that Coach Schiano is familiar with because when the RU coaches work well together, the results are normally great. Of all the seasons Schiano has coached at RU, the seasons where he had 0 or 1 coaching changes, the team really performed well those years. You get the feeling they've found a lot of coaches that will be content where they are for the next few years so that's a great sign.

In addition, the schedule has now been released and all signs point to one game as the make or break game this season. No...it's not any of the Big East games this year...it's an out of conference match-up against Coach Butch Davis and his North Carolina Tarheels.

There are other games on the schedule that are big games for RU, but no game sets the tone for this season quite like the UNC game. RU doesn't have a great Big East schedule for home and away as all the "easier" games are at home and the tougher games are away, but without a win in the UNC game, it will become a tough season for RU. The game is after 2 warm-ups against easy opponents in Norfolk State and at Florida International so knowing where Rutgers stands at that point will be tough. North Carolina will likely be a top 20 team when they visit Rutgers Stadium and Rutgers may be close to the top 25, but we won't truly know how good the team is until this game.

RU also comes off of a bye week into this game, which has been both a blessing and a curse for RU. Recently, RU has been a lot better off of the bye week when the team has a true 14 days to prepare. There are times when the team has come out lethargic, but they normally hit a stride and are prepared well so that's a good sign. They also won't come into this game off of a "big win" to give them some form of thoughts that they are better than they are, which is a big positive too.

However, North Carolina returns a lot of their starters from this year so that will make this game decidedly tougher. Rutgers will definitely have to make sure all of the "open" positions are filled by this game because UNC has the talent to take advantage of any weaknesses on this team. And with a lack of top competition before the UNC game, it may cause some issues, especially on the offensive line where UNC boasts some great defensive tackles. They cannot afford to give UNC any advantages because they have so much experience and could even try to solidify their quarterbacking inconsistencies by that point.

But perhaps the biggest thing this game will have implications in is the bowl scenarios. If Rutgers wins this game, UNC will have a decidely tougher time selling better bowls on their future unless they go to the BCS. Rutgers will be on the same page if we lose this game. And the tougher thing is whatever team loses this game might have a tougher time selling the Champs Sports Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl on their participation, no matter how well they do in their conferences. As we saw two years ago, Rutgers was passed over for the Meineke Car Care Bowl because UNC was selected to the bowl and part of the bowl agreement is that they cannot select teams that have played in the regular season and that could happen between RU and UNC.

This game will definitely set the tone for the rest of the season and how good Rutgers will do the rest of the year. Pitt is very much like UNC and this game could really set up Rutgers for their match-up with Pitt. And the Pitt game will be the toughest in conference game for RU next season. If RU wins those two games, there isn't any reason why Rutgers shouldn't be in great position come December to land in one of the top 3 bowls in the Big East and could be in the running to win the Big East.

A loss in this game will definitely cause RU fans to take a hiatus away from games as we saw last season. After that Cincy loss, many fans fell disenchanted with their team and stayed away until RU showed them something bigger. This game can do the same thing for RU as it's only our 2nd home game and many of the home games we have besides this game are not seen as "top competition" for RU. On the other side, a win in this game would have the stands packed with scarlet clad fans screaming to see the Knights take it to the rest of the teams we play at home. It'll have a huge impact at the amount of fans that go to see the Army game at the New Meadowlands Stadium. That game could be a sell out if RU goes into the game undefeated and Army comes in with a solid record as well.

And all if it will depend on the North Carolina game. The stadium will be sold out and UNC will have their 8,000 fans alive and well. How RU plays will determine how many TAR - HEELS chants we hear on our own home field once again. Rutgers can win this game and will need to win it to keep the hope of this season moving in the right direction.